Rescue of red and white currant germplasm in the Czech Republic

A considerable amount of red and white currant cultivars were cultivated until the beginning of the 20^th century in the Czech Republic.
Cultivars may be classified under several species.
Key species include Ribes rubrum (most red currants), 
R. petraeum (red currants) and R. multiflorum (white and red currants). Historically, currant cultivars were grown on the territory of the Czech Republic as objects of cultural identity and an integral part of cultural landscape.
However, displacement of traditional currant landraces in modern agricultural systems and destruction of old plantations contributed to a considerable loss of genetic diversity.
This serious threat of currant diversity losses has resulted in the development of the programme for in situ searching for rescue and long term maintenance of genetic resources in the Czech Republic.
The genetic diversity of Czech red and white currant genetic resources has been investigated using phenotypical characterization.
This phenotypical characterization revealed high diversity of analyzed germplasm.
Genotypes varied in shrub size, fruit yield, ripening time, fruit size and fruit quality.
Selected important currant genotypes from the point of view of genetic diversity are described in the paper.

XI International Rubus and Ribes Symposium

F. Paprstein, J. Sedlak, J. Kaplan

Ribes, cultural heritage, germplasm, landrace

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2016.1133.8